My participation in Cycle25 Radio Hub has provided an opportunity to meet a whole bunch of fascinating radio people and learn many new things.
Over the years, many of us have joined, started, participated in and/or left radio clubs. A club is an association of people unified by a common interest or goal. Most clubs become formal entities, typically a non-profit with bylaws and budgets. Over the years I have belonged to CIDX, WARC, UMARS and CARA. I even started my own radio club station at Elmwood High School in Winnipeg.
Radio clubs can be fun. But also have their ups and downs. Too often, key man dependence and political factions lead to dysfunction. And, as you know, the life blood of radio clubs – in person get togethers – faded away over the past year.
So, I was fascinated when my friend Vince VE6LK invited me to attend a “radio hub” on Zoom last December. “I’d like to invite you to a Saturday breakfast/lunch group. We call ourselves a hub (not a club) and aptly named Cycle25. It contains members loosely associated with the Oakville Amateur Radio Club and currently has participants (not members, we aren’t a club) from Ontario, Alberta, BC, California, Bermuda, Costa Rica and others.
I signed up and have never looked back. Rod Hardman, VA3ON started the Cycle25 Radio Hub which runs on Zoom at Saturday lunchtime in Ontario – late breakfast in Alberta. Dozens of old and new hams join in for conversations, sharing idea, helping each other out and some presentations. Zoom is great for sharing your desktop or even your whole radio room.
Forming special interest hubs online is nothing new. But Zoom offers you a great opportunity to continue to socialize with common interests among friends at very low cost.
Cycle25 Radio Hub on You Tube
More recently, Rod has started sharing portions of the Cycl25 Radio Hub through live streaming and replays of presentations. Last weekend, Alan W2AEW gave us an updated version of his famous Scopes for Dopes presentation. I received a lot of knowledge about oscilloscopes – how they work and how to use them.
Earlier, we were treated to a meeting with Bob Heil on The Science of Audio. You might watch this for a detailed history of many aspects of audio in live presentations, broadcasting and ham radio.
For more good stuff, subscribe to Cycle25.
John, thanks for the nice post – you captured nicely what I set out to do with Cycle25!
great having you as a participant and Im looking forward to seeing what we can build this into.
Rod